


Coffee grains

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 22:52:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15982193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Prompt: Regina invites Emma over for coffee one day and suddenly questions why she knows exactly how Emma takes her coffee.Asked by thequeenandherswan via tumblr





	Coffee grains

 

 

“Three sugars, right?”

The question was answered with a soft hum as Emma repositioned herself on the couch, picking one of the cushions and putting it on her lap, leather jacket already off and long legs peeking from behind the short coffee table.

It was strange, Regina thought, halting in mid-air and realizing her hand had already added the three sugars without really considering to ask; the domesticity of it all, the warmth that spread through her as she eyed Emma, at the way the blonde’s eyes were on her, a glint on them that made her magic whisper inside her veins.

The blonde had had the same knowing look, the same glance and had dragged the same response out of her, ever since she had returned, a whole new kingdom laid in front of her, responsibilities writing themselves on her shoulders and hands every time she eyed the crown that now was hers to bear.

It was strange that as well; the feel that Emma, a side of it, had also returned when they both had stared at each other; crowning halted and just a whisper coming out of her, a smile beginning to spread as she realized that no, the blonde was in front of her, ruffled, late, but there. It was strange how easy they had fell back into a kind of friendship they had tentatively once tried to have but failed; the villain of the week pushing them to keep on their diet of running and fighting, never once having enough time to breathe and talk.

Which, now, as Regina sat just next to Emma with her own coffee floating just slightly above the table’s surface, made her wonder how she could know the way Emma took her coffee. A piece of information, she pondered, taking a sip of her own and staring -perhaps too intently, perhaps too much- to Emma as the woman groaned and picked her own mug up, taking a longer sip and humming at the hot beverage.

Another thing Regina knew; that Emma preferred, by far, hot drinks over cold ones.

She stared at her hands, at the warm, pale brown liquid that stared back at her, unblinkingly, and pressed the tip of her tongue against the back of her teeth.

“I needed this.” Emma finally spoke after appearing in front of Regina’s porch, words on her lips that fell flat between them as she merely rose the hand that had previously been the thing that made Regina look away, the ring now gone. Letting out a small smile, Emma chuckled to herself. Looking, suddenly, more tired than before with slumped shoulders and darkened features. “Perhaps with something stronger though.”

“I have that.” The answer came quickly, a matter-of-fact undertone laced on Regina’s words. One that made Emma chortle and shake her head even minutely as she took a second sip, eyes narrowing before she stared back at Regina.

The brunette’s head was reeling though, not entirely present as she watched how Emma licked her lips, her own magic a quickly growing bonfire on the pit of her stomach, painting purple and black on the back of her eyelids.

She had known the answer to the question once. She could remember the moment she had learnt which was Emma’s coffee order; back when they had been enemies, back when she had thought on trying to change it perhaps; show her who was the mayor of the town. The pettiness, however, had been forgotten and, she had merely added it to the things she knew about Emma Swan. The ones she learnt about once they started to become… friends.

She winced inwardly at the word as she always had been but merely hummed at Emma’s comment, knowing already that the blonde wasn’t there to talk. Not yet at least. The words would come, eventually, if she waited long enough.

To wait. That didn’t sound strange for her. She was accustomed to it, to wait and strike. However, this time the thought of waiting held another different kind of weight with it. One that made her fingers curls around the coffee mug and quench the purple sparks that threatened to spill over her fingertips.

“Are you alright?” She heard herself say, softly and Emma eyed her with a look that made her tremble for a second before the blonde nodded, once, then twice.

“I will be.” She reassured and, just as she did with her, Regina could see the truth on those words. Paired, as she discovered, with something else, something she wasn’t entirely sure what it was.  “I just wanted to see you.”

And there it was, the same kind of question as why Regina knew all those tidbits about Emma. Things she had learnt once out of… something, she had once called lust and had spent years trying to transform it, mellow it, instead of giving in.

Now, as Emma wiggled her ring-less fingers, the same string of thought crept up her shoulder, whispering things she wasn’t entirely sure she knew how she knew.

Why she remembered them.

_“Why?”_

It was interesting how, out of the two of them, it was Emma the one who sought her, who kept eyeing her with a knowing look that made her even more nervous. It was easier maybe, she considered, trying to get closer when one knew the other person was going to keep sabotaging herself. Out of fear and repercussions. Now those were gone, however, it was her turn to move away, hands warm and pulse rushing.

She, instead, took another sip of coffee and wondered, again, why, how, when, she had become afraid.

She didn’t know it.


End file.
